HUNTINGTON Ƶ Developers say a future multi-family residential complex will bring affordable housing to the Guyandotte and Altizer area, but some residents have concerns.
The complex to be developed by Riverside Landing LP of Columbus, Ohio, at 3224 Riverside Drive near Special Metals will have a combination of two- and three-bedroom apartments, totaling 32 units across five principal buildings.
The three principal structures located in the rear of the property will be attached by a breezeway. Each will be three stories tall and consist of 24 residential units for family households.
The two principal structures at the front of the property will consist of eight residential units and a common space that consists of an exercise room, rental office and maintenance room. Two accessory structures Ƶ a playground and a shed Ƶ also will be constructed.
In addition to the principal and accessory structures, there will be a U-shaped single-lane parking lot with 55 spaces, where three spaces are dedicated to ADA-compliant handicap spots. There will be an enclosure and space for two dumpsters for residents. There will be two new access points made on Riverside Drive.
Huntington Planning Commission
During its regular meeting May 5, the Huntington Planning Commission approved the site plans for the approximate 1.9-acre development, which includes the two parcels fronting Riverside Drive to be consolidated; the residential complex consisting of five principal structures for residential use on the consolidated parcels fronting Riverside Drive; and the third parcel, which is intended for open space.
Five residents voiced concerns regarding the new apartment complex during the public comment portion of the meeting.
Melinda Gallaher, whose home is beside the property that will soon house the apartment complex, asked about measures to give her home privacy and distance from the complex. She was assured that a tree line by her home will remain as intact as possible to create a barrier between the apartment complex and her home. A detention pond will also be near the complex, which will include a fence for safety.
Gallaher and other residents were also concerned on what direction the apartment would face and egress and ingress of the complex. Traffic will come off Riverside Drive. The apartment complex will face Riverside.
Other residents asked if the apartment complex would be low-income housing, which they said they had concerns about, as they said some low-income housing can bring in drugs and other negative situations.
Mike Davis, who has lived in Altizer his entire life, said he was concerned about the affect adding more than 100 people in a small neighborhood will have on current residents.
ƵThatƵs a very small piece of property,Ƶ Davis said. ƵTheyƵre going to lead all the way down the entire neighborhood. WeƵre going to go from a nice neighborhood to a very, very crowded neighborhood; 55 more cars in our community is crazy.
ƵIƵm not real happy with this, and I foresee real problems,Ƶ Davis continued.
Rents will be based on residentsƵ income. Applicants will go through extensive background checks including rental history, criminal checks and credit checks, the petitioner said. The apartment complex will not be Section 8 property, which is classified as low-income.
The Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program is a federal rental assistance program that helps low-income renters pay a portion of their income for rent. The program is overseen and funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), according to the Huntington Housing Authority website.
Properties owned by the Huntington Housing Authority would be considered low-income, commission Chair and Huntington City Council member Holly Smith Mount said, as the authority uses the vouchers, the planned complex will be a private development and will not be considered low-income housing as it is not a part of the Section 8 program, said Justin Schiessler of Riverside Landing LP.
A need for housing
The site is currently vacant and unimproved. The development of the vacant commercial property into a new multi-family residential complex will likely generate more opportunities for affordable housing and sustainability for the Guyandotte-Altizer area, according to the cityƵs planning staff comments.
A housing needs assessment from 2024 stated there are limited multi-family rentals and pent-up demand at all affordability levels within the city. Other rental types, such as houses, duplexes and mobile homes, make up the majority of rental housing.
ƵOne of the issues that we face here in our community is a housing shortage,Ƶ Mount said. ƵOur low-income list right now is about 4,000 people deep, so when we think about the problems that we face in the community regarding the unsheltered, what we need in this community is more housing, period. In every income level we need more houses because that creates an elasticity to the market and it helps us bump people in.Ƶ
Mount also said there are apartments in the city charging more than $1,000 per month in rent because of demand.
ƵWe desperately need to add to the stock in this community for housing, so by adding units, what we do is we create more supply so that we can get people into more quality housing and loosen up that market a little bit,Ƶ Mount said. ƵIt allows us to get people into true Section 8 housing so that they can get off the streets, get jobs, things like (that).Ƶ
A housing needs assessment commissioned by the City of Huntington and the Huntington Housing Authority in October 2023 showed a housing shortage in both the city of Huntington and in Cabell County. The study was conducted by Bowen National Research and found a strong level of demand for multi-family rentals, with surveyed properties operating at an overall 97.3% occupancy rate, a high rate for rental housing.
The multi-family rental vacancy rate is far below healthy market conditions, Patrick Bowen, president of Bowen National Research, the firm that helped to complete the study for Advantage Valley Inc., told The Herald-Dispatch last year. A vacancy rate of only 1%, or 118 out of 10,000 units, indicates a significant need for additional multi-family rental housing for all income levels. A healthy market vacancy rate is 4%.
Bowen said the study shows the region will need several thousand new units of rental and for-sale housing to meet the demand.
Nearly 11,000 rental units and 20,000 single-family homes are needed over the five-year projection period, he said. The largest need for rental units will be for households with incomes of $50,000 or less, and the largest need for single-family homes will be in the $300,000 range.
The properties next to the proposed apartment complex are zoned C-1 Neighborhood Commercial, R-2 Single Family Residential and I-1 Light Industrial.
The petitioners did not need to rezone the area, as the current zoning fits in with the site plans. Because the site is more than one acre, plans needed to be approved by the planning commission through a public hearing process before applying for a building permit. The petitioned site plans will not need to go through Huntington City Council.
